The first satellite launched by Nigeria blasted off aboard a Russian rocket

MOSCOW, September 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A Russian rocket carrying six satellites, including a first-ever Nigerian satellite, went into orbit  Saturday, September 27, after a successful launch from a base at Plesetsk in northern Russia.

The Kosmos-3M rocket carrying the satellites - two Russian, and one each from Britain, South Korea, Nigeria and Turkey - lifted off at 10:12 am (0612 GMT) and went into orbit just over an hour later, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

All six satellites were outside radio visibility from Russia at the time they went into orbit.

The British satellite UK-DMC, NigeriaSat-1 and BilSat-1 of Turkey are to join the international system known as the Disaster Monitoring Constellation incorporating Britain, Algeria, Turkey, Nigeria, China, and Thailand.

For Nigeria, the launch represented the country's entry into the space age, making it the third African country to have a space presence after South Africa and Egypt.

The event has been keenly anticipated by officials and the media in Lagos.

The South-Korean satellite KAISTSat-4 is equipped with a telescope for watching agglomerations of space gas.

Turkey has seen three previous satellite launches, though the satellites were built by France's Aerospatiale and launched by the European Ariane rocket.

After launch, the two Russian satellites were brought under the operational control of Russia's Space Forces, the space wing of the Russian armed forces.

The Russian satellites, Mozhaets-4 and Larets, are designed for research experiments and training of cadets at the Mozhaiski Aerospace Academy in Saint Petersburg and for attuning ground radars respectively.

The Kosmos-3M rocket had originally been due to lift off Friday but was delayed for technical reasons.

Happy Nigeria

Nigeria's Science and Technology Minister Turner Isoun was quoted by the BBC News Online as saying: "The Nigerian delegation is very happy to see this event go on successfully. We've been waiting very anxiously.

Although Russian engineers managed the launch, the satellite's ground control station will be in the Nigerian capital Abuja and staffed by 15 Nigerian scientists.

A prestigious project for President Olusegun Obasanjo which has been greeted with much excitement by the local media, the satellite has nevertheless provoked controversy.

The BBC said that commentators have argued that a country where more than 80 million out of 126 million citizens live in abject poverty ought not to be spending its limited resources on a space program.

According to other observers, also quoted by the BBC, large countries such as Nigeria, space-based observation can make economic sense, as monitoring things like deforestation and water resources from the ground can be very laborious.

"If you have a volcanic eruption that is going to take place, a satellite can tell you in advance that this volcanic eruption is coming," former Nigerian presidential adviser on space Dr Ade Abiodun told the BBC.

"And therefore the decision-makers now have adequate information to warn the populace to move away."

Abiodun added that Nigeria may eventually start building its own satellites.

"You start small - you learn from that experience - and from that you gain a lot of capability," he said.

Stefan Barensky, a consultant on international space issues, agrees that satellites can be an efficient use of public money, according to the BBC.

"Nigeria is a very big country with an important agriculture, with important resources, and a fast-growing population, so if you're the government, the Nigerian Government, you have to manage all this," he was quoted as saying.

"And either you decide to place people everywhere to monitor this on the ground, or you launch one satellite."